


Puzzle House

by Fiddlehoo



Category: Hetalia - Fandom
Genre: I'm so so sorry theres no porn, Other, The list of characters is not ordered by importance, The main characters are Germany and Prussia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 18:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10254002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiddlehoo/pseuds/Fiddlehoo
Summary: Prussia plans a day out with Germany at a puzzle house, where they must solve riddles and contraptions to find the prize. Meanwhile Italy had the same idea, and planned a get together with other countries at the same puzzle house. Much to Prussia's disappointment, he and Germany would have to share the puzzles. But Prussia has a plan: He and Germany would just have to solve the puzzles to reach the prize before anyone else.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a spin off of Nancy Drew, Ghost Dogs at Moon Lake. My buddies and I played the game while acting as all these Hetalia characters. It was a lot of fun, and I thought I'd share our adventure. Though, it was a while ago, so a lot of the script was improvised to make sense. Also, I didn't want to straight up copy the Nancy Drew plot, so I edited the characters and puzzles a bit... I hope you like it!

Germany was working at his desk, another long day of chores and paperwork setting out the window behind him. He switched the lamp on beside him as it became darker, when the phone rang.

"Hey, West," his brother mocked. "Guess what?"

He waited for Prussia to continue, assuming the country would keep talking eventually. After a long while of silence, Germany asked what the matter was.

"I found this cool puzzle house thing, I want you to join me."

"A puzzle house thing?"

"Yes," He laughed, "It's a house you go in and solve puzzles, and you can't get out unless you solve them. Join me."

"That sounds highly unnecessary."

"It is," he sounded as though Germany couldn't spot the obvious.

So Germany tried again, "Therefore, I'm not going."

"Come on, it'll give you a chance to spend time with your super cool older brother." When there was no response from Germany, he continued, "And we can work on puzzles together, and get your average brain to grow as big as mine."

"I don't have time, whenever this is happening."

Prussia answered as if he could tell his brother was excited, "Tomorrow!"

Germany had no response.

"I'm going to call the owners of this establishment and make a reservation right now! The paper says you get one week tops, but we can make it out in less time, right?"

No answer.

"Right?"

No answer still.

"Right, West?"

"What makes you think I am always available to do silly things like this?"

Prussia kept missing the point, "It's not silly; it'll strengthen your brain power, and make you smarter! Where's the harm in that?"

"Don't make reservations for two, I'm not going."

"Oh, you party pooper!"

"Goodnight, then." Germany put the phone back and continued working into the night. When the last paper was finished, he retired to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

When he awoke, he was staring at the radio of a car, bouncing about on an uneven road. He sat up to find he was wearing casual clothes, seat belted in the passenger side. Prussia was driving and took time from the road to stare at him with an open smile.

"Morning..."

"Where are we, what's happening?"

"I've kidnapped you," he let that sink in. "We're going to spend the day solving puzzles."

"How did you get me in the car? How did you change my clothes?"

"Enough questions, we're here!"

Prussia turned off the road and took them down a gravel hill into the woods. The car slowed as they came up to the back of an old lake house.

"There might've been some sleeping scents involved," continued Prussia.

"Is this my car?"

In an instant, something slammed on the back end of the vehicle, bouncing and shaking the car on its wheels. With the impact came a loud smashing of metal and glass.

Once acknowledging they were still alive, Prussia asked, "What was that?"

They exited the car soon after. Straight away, they found a large tree had fallen on the trunk of the vehicle, breaking the taillights.

In the midst of the madness, Prussia tried a joke. "Good thing we took your car."

"How are we getting back home?"

Prussia pushed on the tree, "We're not supposed to until the puzzles are solved. Play the game properly, West. I thought you were a rule follower."

Germany pushed on the tree as well, "Even if we beat the puzzle house, we can't leave with this tree."

"There's a shuttle that comes here and drops people off for this thing."

"Why didn't we take the shuttle?"

Prussia whined, "Because we don't need no stinking shuttle! We're too good for public transportation."

"I'm going to go find a shed, maybe they keep a chainsaw." Germany walked about the estate.

"A shed?" He persisted to heave the tree, "Good luck unlocking it. I don't think they leave things wide open for people. Oh, wait a minute!" He climbed back into the car to fetch something. "Here are the keys to the cabin!"

Germany turned round and came back to take them.

"Don't lose them, they won't send us a shuttle if we can't finish the puzzles."

Germany went looking for the shed again. He followed the brush at the water down a clearing beside the hill, opposite direction of the house. There stood the shed. He went to unlock it, hoping the house key worked for everything around there. With no luck, he went to the front door. Prussia followed him in.

It was a small space; you could see everything from the entryway. In the back, there was a kitchen and table; to the side there was a fireplace and numerous seating arrangements; and across from them, a straight staircase heading toward the side door. Prussia saw the brightly coloured icebox on the table and headed in that direction. Meanwhile, Germany went to the phone beside the couch to discover a sticky note with various numbers written on it: Shuttle, Hints, Ms Dittmar, and Park Ranger.

"Who is Ms Dittmar?"

Prussia opened the box, "She's the owner of the house. She is also the owner of four dogs. There is nothing in here!"

Germany dialled the shuttle and waited.

A man answered, "Puzzle House Shuttle, this is Bertrando."

"Hello, Bertrando. I'm at the lake house and I'd like to leave now."

"Apologies, I haven't received the OK from the administrator. I'll come pick you up when your time at the house is through."

"I'm afraid I cannot offer my time here, I need to return home at once."

Bertrando spoke over the rumble of his shuttle, "Apologies, I am unable to assist you until I receive the OK. Check with the administrator."

"May I get their number?"

"It should be written by the phone, that's what she told me."

Germany assumed he was talking about Ms Dittmar, "Thank you, we'll talk again very soon."

The phone was rested on the dial and picked up again as Prussia came over.

"How are we supposed to eat if we get stranded out here?"

Germany dialled the owner of four dogs.

"Come on, West, let's solve some puzzles and win!" He looked for something to do and caught sight of a cuckoo clock. "Hey look, a suspicious old clock!"

An older woman answered his call, "Administrator."

"I can't be here at the lake house, I need to leave straight away."

Prussia teased from behind him, "Oh, I'm solving the puzzle! My brain is getting so big!"

The administrator's voice sank, "I'm sorry, I am unable to let you leave the property until you solve all the puzzles."

"What do you mean I am unable to leave?"

Prussia laughed, "We signed a form! We agreed to stay until the puzzles were solved!"

Germany put a hand to the phone and whipped round to his brother, "What, I never signed anything, I was asleep!"

"Yes you did! I signed your name with your hand, so technically you signed it too, West!"

He kept himself from exploding on the spot, and gained enough self-control to continue the call.

"Hello," asked the administrator.

"Thank you for your time," Germany ended the call and went to the kitchen to find a phone book. "I don't appreciate being removed from my routine."

There was a click from the clock and a mechanical barking noise.

"Hey, West, check it out!

Germany opened all the cupboards and doors of the kitchen but couldn't find any such book. He glanced round the table, and in the icebox in case a specific someone might've hidden it there. With no luck, he searched for the shed key.

The older brother kept messing with the clock and initiating more clicks and barks. He said as if he were let down by it, "What does this thing even do?"

Germany opened the iron stove but there was no key. He went through the sitting room where Prussia was and opened the cupboards there. Above the couch was a keeping spot crammed with dog statues all in a line, their names embossed in the stands on which they sat, though they were all facing away from him.

"Are her dogs dead, is that why she's obsessed with them?" He asked.

Prussia quit fiddling with the clock to join him, "Maybe that's the theme."

He shut the doors on the dogs and searched the other furniture. Prussia opened the doors again to have a look himself.

"Look, they have names!" He read them aloud, "Linfred, Clovis, Renate, and Falk."

Germany found a key on one of the end tables and went straight to the shed, leaving his brother behind to admire some statuettes. Though, the sound of the shutting door had Prussia running after.

"Hey, you've found a key?"

"Yes," Germany said as if it may not have been the correct one. "I'm going to remove the dead tree from my car so we can go home, and I can tend to my dogs and get back to work."

The shed was successfully unlocked but there was no chainsaw. There was a scythe, probably for the tall grass growing round the property. The other tools didn't look like they would be much help, so he backed out of the place.

"Do you know any towing company's number by memory?"

"I know the emergency numbers. Why, why do you want to leave so badly? We're having fun!"

"I am not," Germany stood at a loss.

"You work every day, it's time you took some time off. You could get back to everything tonight after we've solved the puzzles."

"My car, what will I do about my car?" He thought aloud, "I'll need to call someone to go get it after riding the shuttle back."

Prussia gave a wide smile, "There you go! Problem solved! Let's go find more crap to mess with!"

Germany came to the conclusion that he may actually never get out of there unless all the puzzles were solved, so the administrator could give Bert the OK and they could get back home before dark. He and Prussia practically ran back inside the cabin.

"Now," Prussia gave his brother warning, "I don't know what the clock does, but when I turn the hands the little doors open on top and dogs come out and bark at me."

"Dogs like the ones here?" Germany asked as he revealed the statues once again.

"Yeah, only they're looking at me. Which way is that, north? Maybe the lady wanted all her dog things to point north."

Germany gave the statues his attention, squinting at the way they'd been positioned. "Or these are backward." He tried to pull one of them out but found they had been fastened to the cupboard.

"Maybe there's a pry bar in the shed." Prussia grabbed the key from Germany's pocket and started to race for the tools, but his brother wasn't moving.

"I don't think Ms Dittmar will like us ruining her puzzles. Maybe there's a way to move the dogs on the clock."

Prussia hid the key in one of his own pockets and joined Germany at the dog clock. The youngest turned the hour hand, and one of the four doors opened to present them with an even smaller dog statuette, the eldest grabbed and attempted to twist it. With each failed try, they repeated the same process until they'd opened each of the dogs' doors twice.

"All right," stated Germany. "Let's try something else."

Prussia stopped laughing at their failure and returned to the cupboard. "Maybe you didn't pull properly. Let me do it, I've got more muscle than you."

With that, Prussia yanked on one of the statues. Without luck, he tried yanking it a different way. Still no budge in the dog, Prussia tried wiggling the statue out of its comfort spot, and with a twist of his hand, the dog rotated on it's axis and locked in a new position facing west.

"Oh my God, West! I did it I solved the puzzle! The dogs turn on their stands, isn't that great?" He went ahead and turned all of them so they faced him, but one of them was caught in place.

"Is that one stuck?" Germany came closer to observe.

"Maybe there's a pry bar in the shed!" Prussia began to run off again when Germany stopped him.

"Don't break the puzzle. This must be part of the challenge."

"Why won't it turn?"

They had their noses centimetres apart from it to observe, looking for something wrong with it in comparison to the rest.

Prussia suggested, "Maybe we need to find this dog on the clock and do something with it." He read the name, "Renate, okay which one of you is Renate?"

He left Germany to find the correct cuckoo dog.

From outside there was a loud engine coming nearer, as if a large automobile was approaching the house. Germany shouted nonsense as he ran out the door to catch it.

He whipped round the branches of the fallen tree and ran for the main road, hoping to stop the driver in time, and hoping there was enough room for one more passenger. At the head of the drive, he could see the shuttle coming to a stop right at his feet. As the door opened for him, he realised the shuttle had not stopped to let him in, but to let someone else out.

America jumped out of the vehicle, arms wrapped round a large army bag. Before Germany could react, the shuttle driver closed the doors and took off. He chased the thing as he shouted and waved, but the shuttle never stopped.

Upon walking back to the newcomer in defeat, the American said, "Great outdoors, huh?"

"What are you doing here?"

"The Puzzle House!" He shouted, "I've been hand chosen to complete the mission! Don't try to tell me you didn't hear! The surprise has already been done."

"What do you mean?"

"Surprise!" He jumped with his luggage and backpack. "I'm here to help! The truth of the matter is that you're surprised!"

Germany tried to connect the dots, "What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, friend." He leaned on the man's shoulder and gave him the most sincere expression he could conjure, "I'm here to help."

"Did Prussia sign you up too?"

America took on another smile, "No, I signed up myself! Heard you were having a party and thought I'd party too!"

"Well now," Germany scratched his brow as he tried to come up with a plan, "You can't leave until all the puzzles have been completed, that's what signing does for you."

"Fine," he inputted.

"We've already started working on the clock puzzle-"

"Yeah?"

Germany tried to continue as he was being interrupted, "Maybe you could work on a different-"

"Okay!"

He tried not to get upset as he concluded, "Just try not to break anything or interfere with what we've already started."

"Sure!" America led them down to the house when the tree caught his attention. "Wow, so you got you're car crushed by a tree?"

"We've already made plans to get that straightened out. Now, the phone has numbers on it if you wish to contact someone involved, there isn't any food in the house-"

"I brought rations for myself. Thought you guys were bringing your own, so," he took a nervous inhale, which probably meant he wasn't willing to share. Not that anyone would want any.

"All right, well we're only going to be here until sundown, so as long as you can hold your appetite, you shouldn't starve to death."

"Sundown," America snorted. "I did my research, the average length it takes people to complete the mission is a few days short of a week."

Germany almost went cold as he put his foot on the cabin steps. America went ahead and let himself in, announcing his arrival. Shuffling through all the possible escapes, Germany ran for the phone and dialled the number written beside the word Hints.

The whisper of a man answered, "What is it you wish to know?"

"Where is the first puzzle?"

"Begin anywhere you please..."

"How do we solve the clock puzzle with the four dogs in the cupboard?"

"Seek the poem..."

Germany thanked the whisper and put the phone down on the table for later. He told Prussia what they needed to do next and the two of them searched the room. America went upstairs to set camp in the meantime. They kept an eye out for anything that may look like a poem; whether it be paper, embroidery, something inscribed somewhere on the furniture or the walls, or even a hidden message in a careful placement of items.

Prussia found a paper tucked in the back of one of the kitchen cabinets, "I've found an old paper with a map on it!"

"Is there a poem?"

"It says," he skimmed through the side message. "No, it's not."

They kept looking until Prussia found something else by the side door.

"I've found a plaque! It says, when darkness turns to light, it ends tonight."

"What does that mean?" He crossed the room to read it over.

"No, I'm just kidding!" Prussia laughed as he covered the plaque with his hands so Germany couldn't read it. "It says, morning is plenty as lush sweeps the leaves, noon is gracious while swimmers green no sleeves, evening is wholesome in the way fauna rightfully perceive, then night is always careful while farewell you shall receive."

"What has this got anything to do with the clock?"

Prussia held his chin as he decoded the poem, "The beginning of every sentence has a time of day, that could mean a lot."

America boomed down the stairs with each step, "Hey, what's going on, team? Did you beat the clock yet?"

"No," Germany kept himself from saying too much.

"That's okay, I'll start doing something else so we can get more done in less time." He went to the front door and poked about there.

Germany focused on the plaque once again, "Would we assume the way the poem is written corresponds to the position of each dog on the clock?"

His brother said, "Maybe if you knew which dog was which on the clock."

"Should we figure that out first?"

Prussia looked behind them to check what America was doing, and then he came back to their huddle at the wall. "I didn't see their names anywhere when the little doors opened. Maybe it goes left to right like how you would read."

Germany read the first time of day, "Morning, so which direction is morning?"

"Oh," his older brother shouted with glee, "The sun rises in the east!" He then ran for the cupboard to turn the leftmost dog that way.

"But if the sun sets in the west, and that would be the last dog, which way would the other two be facing?"

Prussia regrouped after turning the statues, "One of them is still stuck, but I turned the first one to face right, the last two to face left. Like how the sun moves throughout the day."

Germany brought their huddle to the cupboard, "How to get Renate unstuck?"

America announced, "There's some kind of door on the stairs!"

The other two kept working on the dogs as America squeaked the floorboards as he walked, and even after he'd stopped the floor kept squeaking, as if his weight was too much on that particular section. Soon after, the wood snapped and the man screamed as he fell through the floor. Germany and Prussia made a casual turn to check on him.

"Fuck, I'm down! I'm stuck in the floor, I hurt all over!"

Prussia muttered, "Idiot." Then went back to solving the dog puzzle. "Looks like there's a wedge built into Renate's stand, like they wanted hers to get stuck."

"Maybe there's sandpaper in the shed."

Prussia ran to the shed, trying to be the first one to find it, with Germany coming along behind. He quickly unlocked the door and went in, found a sandpaper box, and snatched it just as Germany was coming close to the shed.

Prussia pushed past him as if to prove he was better. "Ha, ha, West! Too slow!"

Germany turned and re-entered the cabin, feeling he should've just stayed there. The eldest sanded the wedge off and twisted Renate to face east, America moaning in the floor all the while.

The youngest eyed the clock behind them, "Now, what does this mean for the clock?"

"Maybe you turn the hands to each time of the day mentioned in the poem. Look, morning is twelve..."

He turned the hour hand and was greeted by a tiny dog along with a click and bark.

"Twelve is noon..."

A second click and bark with another open door.

"West," he called. "The backgrounds in their rooms have changed."

"Changed how? As you turned the hand to twelve?"

"No, last time they were all painted birds, but now they're deer." He turned the hand to twelve once more, still greeted with a click and a bark. "Hey, these other two are swans!" He assumed because the first two rooms were the same, the last two must've been as well.

Germany went to see for himself, "The first two are deer and the last two are swans?"

"Hey, yeah!" Prussia shouted in agreement with himself, "The dog statues change the cuckoo dogs' rooms!"

Germany looked about the clock for a reward of some kind. "Have we solved it? What went wrong?"

"The statues are in the wrong order still." Prussia went to the plaque to read it over again. "Okay, West, you turn the statues as I read."

Germany situated himself with the cupboard.

"Morning is plenty, hey what if we turned all the dogs different ways to see which way was which picture."

Germany did as he was told, "All right, what time do we set it for?"

The eldest came bounding over to the clock, "It doesn't matter; each hour opens a door." After a round of clicks and barks, Prussia had memorised every picture he saw in order.

"Okay, there are leaves, birds, swans, and deer. Which direction are they facing?"

"West, north, south, and east."

"Of course you would have the first one facing west," Prussia mocked.

"How does the poem go?"

Prussia ran over to the plaque, passed the weeping America. " Morning is plenty as lush sweeps the leaves, so obviously that one is leaves. Noon is gracious while swimmers green no sleeves, okay, swans are swimmers, so that one is swans. Evening is wholesome in the way fauna rightfully perceive, fauna as in deer. This is too easy now. Then night is always careful while farewell you shall receive. I don't know how that once makes sense, but it's got to be the last picture."

"How did the clock pictures go?"

"Leaves were West, birds were north, swans were south, and fauna was east-a."

"Easter?"

"I was making a joke, where is your holiday happy?"

Germany shook his head, "I have work to do, I have no time for holiday, and who's going to feed my dogs?" He turned each dog accordingly as Prussia ran to the clock again.  
Before he could turn any hands, there was a louder click from the door America had found earlier. They looked over to find it had been pushed out from the wall, probably from some sort of pulley system in the foundation of the house.

Prussia went over to America's trap and tried to see if he could get passed.

"Don't hurt yourself, let's get him out of the floor first."

He and Prussia took an arm and heaved the man out from the floorboards. They argued where to put him and ended up laying him just before the couch, Prussia too excited to worry too much about him.

Another engine was heard nearing the house, and Germany ran to go stop it. The same event happened again, as the noise turned out to be another shuttle, and the driver had come only to drop people off. Germany stood like a fool as it drove off, leaving the next group of newcomers.

"Germany!" Italy leaped into him.

Japan greeted him from where he got off the shuttle, "Hello, Germany-san."

Switzerland took Liechtenstein down the gravel path without a word. Behind them, Denmark and all of those people headed for the cabin like it was nobody's business. Germany could hear remarks about the tree and his car from most of them, which was rather embarrassing.

"Germany," Italy gave him his and Romano's suitcases, "I have been waiting for this for a long time! Even those who hate the outdoors came, would you believe it? Many of countries said they would never be able to make it, which is too bad. I really wanted to get everyone together so it would be like we're a big family!"

"This was planned?"

"Oh," Italy's smile shrank to a concerned lip, "Don't you like seeing everybody?"

"Did Prussia invite you?"

"No, of course not! I invited him! And everybody else, so we could all be together! It was meant to be a surprise for you, so I never told you. But I was hoping someone else would indirectly, so you would never find out it was a surprise!"

Romano grumbled, "I'm tired."

Germany thought back to his time with America. "Did you invite America as well?"

"Yes, I invited everybody!"

"Why was I under the impression he'd invited himself?"

Japan chimed in from the back, "Are we the last ones to arrive?"

Germany stood trying to piece everything together.

 

When they got inside, Italy went to go unpack with his group, and Germany found his older brother trying to reach for the newly opened door with the scythe.

"West, I've figured out how we're going to dodge the hole in the floor! See, we open the door with this scythe, and then run and jump in to the room. Get it?"

"Why didn't you tell me Italy had invited everyone to the Puzzle House?"

"Oh my God, is that what's happening? That little asshole stole my idea!"

"So he never called you and invited you out?"

Prussia tried to fasten the scythe to something, "I don't remember, I think Austria caught wind of it somehow and I overheard it, and I thought; what a great idea! Me and West could solve stupid puzzles together at a stupid cabin with no food! So I reserved the cabin, but apparently that doesn't mean shit!"

Germany held his head.

"But it doesn't matter," his brother went on, "Because we're going to solve all the puzzles first!"

"America told me it takes one week to do that."

Prussia was tying curtains from the closest window round the end of the scythe, "America's not the smartest country in the world, West."

Germany decided to calm down and do the best he could to complete the game in as little time as they could help. From where he'd settled the phone on the end table, there was a long beep, indicating the phone had been disconnected for too long. He went to hang up on the whisper, seeing as he wasn't much help at the moment anyway.

"I thought if all came to worse, I could call Italy and have him feed the dogs, but he's here as well."

Prussia had the knot secure and backed up to ready himself for the leap. "Okay, I'm going! One, two-"

Before he could finish counting, the door swept the tool aside and shut with a heavy thump. The scythe was then dangling over the hole in the floor.

"Oh no," Prussia whined. "The door's too heavy for this idea. I'm going to go find the pry bar for more weight."

Germany picked up the phone once again and called the whisper back.

"What is it you wish to know?"

"How do we get passed the old floorboards by the secret door?"

"Try your hand at mending them..."

Germany thanked the whisper and hung up, rather then letting him listen in on their conversations as he had the last time. Italy and Japan came down the stairs then.

"Germany," Italy took the country's fingers, "Let's work on a puzzle together!"

"How about you and Japan work on something else while Prussia and I finish what we're doing. That way, I can get back home sooner, and we can all get back to whatever it was we were doing before this mess."

"Oh, but Germany," he moaned, "We were all going to work together as family."

Japan chimed in, "I will do an additional puzzle if that would be more convenient for you, Germany-san."

Prussia walked over with the scythe resting over his shoulder; happy to belong to this new family they were on about. "Hey, you guys! We got here first, so back the fuck off, yeah?"

"Oh-" Italy began to say.

"What he means is," Germany corrected, "We've started one puzzle already, but it would-"

"No," Prussia corrected on top of that. "What I mean is, I had the place booked first. How is it possible that you were able to reserve the cabin for everyone else? Did you override the system like a sneaky little nerd pirate?"

Japan took a step back as Prussia pointed and came closer to him.

"No," Italy shrieked to get everyone's attention. "I told the nice manager lady that I wanted to take my friends to the Puzzle House, and she said it was okay if I did that. So then I called everyone and asked if they wanted to come!"

Germany gave Prussia his full attention. "You're not yourself right now, you need to calm down."

"But I made the reservation first! Why would she let you guys stay the same day I was staying?" Prussia stomped to the phone, squeaking the floor.

Germany hoped the complaint would get him back home faster, but he followed to calm his brother a bit first.

"Maybe," Italy began screaming again, "There was some kind of accident!"

Over everything Italy was babbling in the background, Prussia dialled the Administrator. Germany attempted to take the phone and talk to her himself, but Prussia shoved him away with an elbow and cradled the device with his entire body, dropping the scythe.

"Hello, I have a question, Ms Dittface. How come you let Italy stay here while I was?"

Italy took his friend's arm, "Germany, let's go."

He swatted the smaller country off him and focused back on his foetal positioned brother.

"What," Prussia demanded the phone, "How could you think that? What makes you think I belonged to Italy's stupid group of friends?"

Germany put a hand to his elder brother's back, "That's enough."

"Quiet," He reached behind him and tried to slap Germany. "Un-reserve them, move their stay to tomorrow!"

Italy tried to take Japan, but he told him to keep quiet for the time being. Germany wrestled the ball of pitiful to get the phone.

"Then cancel my reservation!" Prussia held fast in his bundle, "Yes, you can!"

Germany got up and wiped his face, wishing the woman would simply end the call.

"Screw the forms! You're going to be in a lot of trouble- you know what? Fine! Keep your stupid papers and sleep with them cos you have no husband!" Prussia slammed the phone down on the receiver and rushed out of the cabin.

Germany chased after him, "What's happened?"

"She says we can't leave until the puzzles are done because we signed those stupid forms! Come on, West, we're going to end the game before Italy does."

Prussia shoved about the shed but found no pry bar. He started looking for something else when Germany stated,

"The next task is to rebuild the floor so we can cross it."

"With what? There's nothing in here!" His mood brightened instantly, "Hey, I found a key!"

Germany looked to the wooden box lying on the ground about the same time Prussia did. The next moment, he was already getting it unlocked, moving quickly. They were both displeased to see the key snap in half upon turning. Prussia cussed and looked round for something. He then grabbed the gnome from the shelf and bashed it against the second puzzle they couldn't solve.

He reassured the eldest, "Perhaps there's something we could use to unscrew the fastens on the hinges."

"Oh, you mean like a screwdriver? Which is probably in this tool box?"

"Calm down, it was a simple mistake. We'll just solve the puzzles as best we can, all right?"

"Good, good," Prussia nodded as if to reassure himself.

"If we do end up staying the night, I'll need to contact someone about my dogs." Germany searched the shed for something narrow and flat. In the meantime, another visit from the shuttle was heard. This time round, Germany would stay right where he was. As they handled various objects, failing at unwinding the screws, Germany thought up a better idea.

He left for the cabin to get a plain answer out of the whisper. On his way, the new group of settlers caught his attention as they came down the drive, pointing and laughing at his car. From what he could see, this next group consisted of most others from world meetings. Now almost everyone knew about the dead tree in his car. He stepped onto the porch just as Italy came out the door.

"Germany," he gave an easy smile. "Please stay and have fun on holiday with us. The lady had an accident with her files, and that's okay, we'll share the cabin! You work all the time, why not rest? Stay here the week, okay? Germany?"

Japan came outside as well, "I have no preference whether to stay or leave, but you do work an awful lot."

Germany imagined the schedule on his desk and tried to remember if there was anything major planned. He supposed chores didn't count, and in that case, it wasn't out of the question to leave things untidy for the time being. He'd been working overtime as well, in hope that he would eventually have some time off. He hated the idea of having spent his working hours just to waste time at a Puzzle House, but Italy had been waiting for this a long time.

"Oh, Germany, stay it'll be so much fun! We could go swimming, and running through the woods, and sunbathing..."

Germany grumbled, "This place is about problem solving, not loafing."

"We could work at night, and play during the daytime. We could even take naps during the day. Or maybe we could work every other day."

Prussia ran over from the shed, "Hey, West! You ditcher! I'm going to find a fork," and he sped passed the three of them to enter the cabin.

Japan asked, "How many puzzles are you working on? Italy and I could try to finish one, if you'd like."

Germany thought he'd spend time with his friends after all. He could always have his own holiday another time. His plan to call the whisper was dismissed, as he gave his undivided attention to the two in front of him.

"We haven't solved the first puzzle yet. We got a door to unlock for us behind the staircase, but America broke through the old floorboards. Our next task is to mend the wood, but the screwdriver for the toolbox has been misplaced."

Prussia came outside to join them, "There isn't any silverware in the house. Hey, you aren't telling them our puzzle are you?"

Germany had observed something he didn't think anyone had considered; "It may very well be one big puzzle that involves various others in order to move on. So leading them to another would just put them ahead of our own."

"What, that's not creative! That's too easy!"

"We can't even get the toolbox-"

Prussia laughed as loud he could to interrupt him. "West, there are lots of other puzzles! Just look around, guys, don't be so lazy. You know, there may be a very special one in the woods if you look for it."

Italy insisted, "I've brought some silverware for eating if you'd-"

The country's voice was lost in the commotion form upstairs, it had kept getting louder, and now it was almost impossible not to overhear them. They were complaining about space and who would get the bed. Some of them were trying to calm the matter, though there hadn't been any signs of that being successful.

Germany went in to have a look, claiming the host role from Italy for reasons.

"Of course I am," hollered France. "I'm not sleeping on the floor like a pig!"

China gestured to where his sleeping bag was, "We could all sleep on the floor. Then nobody has to be proud."

Romano huffed as he hid under the duvet, "None of you get to sleep in the bed because I am!"

Germany finally spoke up, "Excuse me! What is the problem?"

Russia explained in as few words possible, "Everybody wants to sleep in the bed, but there is no room."

Romano squeaked, "I am sleeping here, go away!"

Spain tried to pull him out with everybody's eyes on him, "Romano, be kind to others for once! You're always so inconsiderate!"

Germany took a head count as Prussia and the other two from the porch came up the stairs as well.

He concluded, "There are too many of us to all fit in one room."

England snorted, "We didn't need your help for that."

Germany continued, "So, we could divide ourselves into Morning and Night groups, and during the time we are not sleeping, we pack our sleeping gear to make room for the next group."

There was an uneasy response round the room.

Prussia said, "I like your idea, West! Let's do it!"

America took a hand from his hip to point at the ceiling, "I have an idea! Why don't half of us sleep downstairs?"

Germany asked across the room, "Are you well enough to be standing?"

Russia mentioned through his scarf, "This isn't quite all of us, actually. There are others still outside."

Germany sighed and had everyone regroup in the front garden.

 

"Wait a minute," Japan said after Germany's second headcount. "Switzerland and Liechtenstein are missing."

Germany added two more people to his result, seeing as the only way to leave was by shuttle, and he knew how that went. "Now, who has an idea about this?"

Sealand raised his hand but everyone ignored him.

Prussia insisted, "Your idea was the best, let's do that one!"

So Germany continued, "All in favour of that idea."

There were many who raised their hand then, probably those who were totally against sleeping downstairs.

America continued after that, "All in favour for my idea?"

There were fewer hands raised this round, and most of them weren't voting.

Germany asked, "Does anyone have a better idea?"

"Oh, I do!" Prussia said, "Who all wants to go home?"

From beside them, Italy clasped his hands together, "No! Please stay everybody! I was going to make you food anyway, but I'll make you food now so you'll stay, I make very good food!"

America frowned at the group. "Come on, be good sports and stay until the job's done. You're already out here, may as well have some fun."

Russia said, "I'm having fun."

Italy began a nervous nod as he waited for something more to happen.

The conversation was brought back after Germany went on, "Does anyone else have an idea as far as sleeping arrangements?"

Hungary suggested from a ways off, "We could sleep in pairs?"

Suddenly, everyone broke out in a name calling rage, desperate to match themselves with someone convenient, lest this idea passed. There were instances when more than two people chose the same partner, and they would argue which one of them were going to have to choose someone else. After a few moments of chaos, there were people who just gave up and insulted the idea on the side.

Germany stood waiting for it all to end. Prussia had even picked someone out by then. Some time went by and everybody was back in their meeting spots.

"So," Germany went on, "Who all is in favour of Hungary's idea?"

Many of them raised their hands simply because they'd hate for that scrambled matter to be for naught. Others who hadn't been so lucky with their partners shook their heads or booed in total disagreement.

"Does anyone else have an idea?"

China suggested, "We could set up tents outside with our partners."

England scoffed, "If anyone brought a tent."

America was the first to raise his hand, "I brought one! I could probably fit a few of us in there, if anybody wants."

Germany went on again, "All in favour for setting up tents, or sleeping in America's?"

America and China were the only ones with their hands in the air. Then, after a moment, Russia slowly raised his hand.

Prussia growled to himself in frustration. "Why can't we just share the actual sleeping area? That's what makes most sense!"

Germany told the mumble beside him, "Because nobody wants to do that."

"Wait a minute," Italy gathered everyone's attention. "We could sleep under the stars, we don't need tents."

"No," huffed Romano. "I'm sleeping in the bed and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Spain took the tomato from Romano's hand and threatened to throw it. As the other jumped for it and shouted, and as other countries practically went into shock from just the thought of wasting food. The rest, however, continued.

"All in favour," said Germany, "For Italy's idea?"

There were multiple hands, but most were up because the topic had gone on for too long, and they just wanted to go do something already.

Japan spoke up, "Well, sleeping in pairs had the most votes. Maybe we could think of some other ideas like that."

"Japan," asked Italy, "Who is your sleeping partner?"

Almost unwilling to say, he admitted, "I didn't choose one."

America was happy to take over, "All right! Sleeping in pairs it is, the votes are in! Those of you who have terrible sleeping buddies; how about it, wanna share my tent?"

The leftover crowd made uneasy remarks about that.

"All right, wanna split into two groups: One for partners, and one against? Then, those of you who wanna sleep alone can sleep downstairs."

They offered better remarks as if to say America was getting closer.

Russia budded in, "Why don't we just switch out? Some people sleep at night, and some people sleep in the day."

China did as well, "And you can sleep with your partner!"

There were various approvals by then, and all those who always had something nasty to say about this idea were pretty much through with discussion.

Germany took charge once again, "So, the first idea. Let's split the garden into two sides; left is morning group, right is night group."

Everyone shuffled about until there were two lines ahead of Germany, and in the middle stood Japan.

"What is it now?"

Japan said from his own row, "I have no preference."

 

 

Prussia and Germany scavenged the kitchen and sitting room for a screwdriver. After everyone had been assigned a group, the night people went off to bed. There was a main rule about the puzzle house already; keep objects in the icebox where the next group could find them. That way, every time something was used, the next group could finish the job or even use the tool again.

Guaranteed there were no screwdrivers anywhere in the cabin, Prussia and Germany went outside. Over by the dock, there was a group of people messing with the rowboat.

"Just turn it over," said France.

China told him after trying with America, "It's too heavy."

"Maybe there's a cup we could use to get the water out."

America stepped onto the dock, "I saw a bucket by the water pump. I'll go get that."

Prussia and Germany waited about to see what their puzzle had to do with their own, just in case something were to correlate somewhere. America ran passed them and retrieved the wooden bucket. On his way back to the dock, he greeted the Germans with a smile.

"That's a good sized bucket," said China.

America put one foot on the boat's edge and scooped the water out.

France watched as he kept some hair out of his face. "Hey, there's a screwdriver in there."

Prussia shouted on the top of his lungs and took off down the dock. The three alongside the water looked up with alarmed expressions, trying to figure out what he wanted. China swiped the screwdriver from the bottom of the boat and flipped onto the dock, protecting his team with his body, and flung the item away. Prussia did his best to catch the thing as he was caught off guard; scrambling his hands down his body as the screwdriver fell. He pinched his knees together for a landing spot and threw his arms at the thing, catching it after a long and humiliating process. Now without his pride he ran to the shed, Germany following behind.

 

They got the toolbox open and found a hammer and some nails. The next task would be to find some wood to repair the floor with. Maybe there was an axe laying at the bottom of something somewhere.

"Does Dittface expect us to chop down her trees?"

"Stop calling her that. No, I think the point of this game is to use what is given to you. There must be some planks of wood lying about."

"We could use branches, there are a lot of those." Prussia scratched his head, "Oh, there's a garbage pile at the back of the house, maybe they're in there."

They went to the back of the cabin where Germany's car was smashed. Standing around a short mound with a tarp over it, was another group, all of them suddenly very nervous.

"Hello," smiled Finland.

Latvia and Estonia froze in mid-position and also tried a smile.

Prussia lifted the tarp to reveal all the junk of the place. There, smashed in with everything else, was a single plank of wood.

"There's only one," he said as if Ms Dittmar had made a mistake.

"We'll have to look elsewhere," said Germany.

"Maybe there's some in the basement." Prussia walked over to the cellar door when Finland warned him:

"Oh, that door is locked."

Prussia saw no keyhole. "It opens from the inside, how do you get in from inside the cabin? Is that where the secret door leads?"

Germany said, "I wouldn't doubt it."

"Where's that map I found? Maybe there's some wood in that scary maze."

"What scary maze?"

"You know," Prussia gave an eye signal towards the others behind him, "that scary maze I found on that paper inside."

His brother sighed at how secretive he was trying to be and he led the way back to the kitchen.

Prussia new just where to find it, folded at the back of the-

"Who stole it?"

"Maybe they put it in the icebox," Germany checked but nothing new was inside.

"That little shit head invited a bunch of burglars! Whatever, who cares, it's probably just a stupid maze for sissies anyway. Come on, West."

Prussia led them outside and up a short hill to the woods. There was overgrowth all about, grasses up to their thighs, and ivy coiled round the tree trunks. The woods itself was light and didn't appear to be anything worth needing a map for.

They entered the maze through the short hall of trees, overhearing birds and other groups from the inside. The path immediately split in different directions.

"Let's go this way," said Prussia heading right.

Germany followed, and as he did so he remembered something about mazes. "If we keep to the right wall, it'll lead us through the maze safely."

"Yeah, good idea."

 

 

America, China, and France were crammed in to the old motorboat and were traveling towards the neighbouring lake house, wondering whom it belonged to. China made sure they were moving at the lake's speed limit, not only to obey the ground's policies but because there were so many people swimming in the water. They seemed to be keeping to the deeper areas to avoid conflicts with algae build-up, which stayed mainly near the shore.

The boat's engine was turned off as they came close enough to the new dock, allowing a steady drift to their destination. After a slight bump with the meeting of the boat to the wooden structure, they climbed onto the dock.

Inside, the building was rounded, and much smaller than the Puzzle House. There was a table across the way with a short filing dresser and computer on top. To the right was the ranger's desk, and between the two was a water dispenser. Switzerland and Liechtenstein were there as well, drinking paper cups of water.

"Hello," called the ranger, "Welcome to the Wilderness Centre."

"Ah ha," America said as he moseyed round the place. "This is where the park ranger lives."

China went to the desk. "Hello, sir, is there a puzzle to solve here?"

"I don't know about puzzles," he began, "But if you'd be so kind, I've been meaning to test Ms Dittmar's water. She's the administrator of the Puzzle House, as you may know. I understand she has a pump, could you bottle up some water and bring the sample back to me by today? I've got a water testing kit here for you to use."

China took the kit from the ranger. "Yes, we can ask the administrator for a bit of her well water."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate it."

China took his group back out to the boat, and they journeyed passed the swimmers to the Puzzle House, just as slow as they'd gone the other way. This dock was a bit higher than the last, now that they were in the position of needing to climb aboard whereas getting off the dock wasn't a bother at all. They approached the pump where America had fetched the bucket, and prepared the test tube. China ran inside to ask the owner for permission.

Meanwhile, France tried the pump and found it was dry. "There isn't any water in her well."

"That makes it safe," smiled America.

"Maybe the pump doesn't work anymore, the house is so old." He gave it a few more pumps without luck.

"Could be an air pocket," America poked at the metal funnel in the top of it.

"What can be done about that? Water?"

"Well, we probably shouldn't use the lake water, and if there is any clean water it would be in the well already. So the question is, how to get the water out if we need water to get it out?"

France spun a strand of hair round a finger to occupy his nerves with this country. He looked around for a moment then came back to America's topic, "Has somebody brought a water bottle?"

"Good thinking," he pointed to France, most definitely impressed. "We could go through everyone's bags while the Night Team is sleeping."

When China came out with the answer, he confirmed they were allowed to fiddle with the ground's pump. They exchanged knowledge about the air pocket, and China thought aloud with them.

"Ah, maybe there is another piece to this puzzle somewhere already," said he.

"That's true," France gave America a concerned eye. "Using something one of us had brought would be cheating, I see now."

"No," said America, "The ranger said this wasn't a puzzle."

China argued, "He could've been sworn to secrecy. Or maybe this is his only job and he wants to be honoured, working for a puzzle-house may seem low class."

France inputted, "He could just be playing along."

"Well," America tried to end the dispute, "Let's look for some water, Team!"

Then, they all turned for the porch simultaneously, thinking they'd have the best luck going through the house. China held the door open as the other two walked in, America thanking him as if he'd just been given an award. They went straight for the icebox on the table, even though it was only for keeping supplies; but there was always the possibility someone could've found a water bottle and left it there for them to find, or maybe there was one already in there and Germany just thought it was a good spot to put other things.  
They were troubled when the box was empty, and France took a step back to fold his arms. From his new position, he could see behind the box, and there sat a water bottle.

"Oh, here is one." He grabbed it and held it up.

"Good job," America gave one loud clap. "Let's get that water into the pump!"

China asked, "How do we know one of us didn't leave it there?"

France regarded the brand name. Well actually, it was a strip of paper taped round the bottle. "Puzzle Piece: Water Bottle. Love, Ms Dittmar."

"For real?" America saw for himself as France presented the note. "That's sweet. She's the owner of the property. She's also the founder of the puzzle-house gig. I did a little reading before the trip."

France started for the pump, "Such a hostess."

China went to hold the door again, "This is fun, isn't it?"

France unwound the cap and poured some liquid down the opening at the head of the lever, and after they waited for a moment, China gave it a few pumps. After some time, water began to spill from the spout. They each made their own sound of approval, and America caught a bit of water in the test tube. He corked the thing and stared into it, holding it close to his face.

"Alright," he stated as if they were secret agents, "Let's get these results to the park ranger."

They crammed in the boat and went along the water in direction of the Wilderness Centre, passing everyone swimming again at an easy velocity. America brought the well water to the ranger with his group.

"Thank you very much," the ranger took the tube from them. "I'll send this off to the lab and get what we find back to you in a couple of days."

"Sounds good," America gave the man thumbs up.

China asked, "Is there another puz- or something else we could do for you?"

"Well," said the ranger, "If you really don't have anything else to do, I'd appreciate it if you could file those documents over there on the table. It's pretty self-explanatory."

America started for the short filing cabinet, "Leave it to us!"

As the other two huddled round the files, France sat at the computer to wait, seeing as he wouldn't be able to fit round the cabinet anyway.

China noticed, "These are numbered in roman numerals."

"Do we order them by date left to right?" America glanced down at the end of each column where the titles were. Each of them was labelled with a specific time frame, starting with 1900-1912, the next being 1913-1919, and so on.

"The bottommost box of each column being earliest of that year?" China recognised the labels as well.

France shook the mouse to wake the computer. "You two have a nice time, I'll just educate myself on the wilderness. The screen came on to present him with the homepage to the centre, listing the various aspects of the park to read about. France went ahead and clicked the first link, ready to learn about The History of the Lake. From there, he was given another set of links. He clicked The Creation of the Park, and there he found a link titled Roman Numerals.

The two hovering over the cabinet were trying to remember which numerals came before the next, fretting over numbers like: MCMXCVII.

"You two, I've found a page on what you're working with."

"That's convenient," said China. "Why would the centre's computer have a page on roman numerals?"

"Maybe just in case he wanted them to sort his files?" France gave him a knowing look. "Don't you think?"

"Ah," China went back to filing as if nothing had been confirmed. "I think you're right, France."

America sorted through the files to the best of his ability, and then took a peek at France's page. "Ah ha, M is one thousand! That means this one here is one thousand, one hundred, one thousand, ten, one. Are we supposed to add the numbers together?"

"This C is before the second M, that would mean the C takes away from the M. One hundred from one thousand is nine hundred."

"That's right, China, I forgot all about that subtraction deal!"

France held his head at his new job of leaving the page open, "You two make a great team..."

America took a file and did the math on it before placing it near the front.

They went through the smaller numbers and tried looking for the smallest, one that would go on the first row of the beginning column. With few disagreements and unsure choices, they were able to get through the first two columns. The remaining numbers were much longer, and subtracting properties were much more difficult to spot.

After time, they never looked over at the screen anymore, so France went back to the main page and read what there was to know about the park.

"XXXVI goes next," insisted America.

"But XXXIV is next, see that one was 1933, and after XXXIV is this one, 1935."

"No, because look, XXX is thirty, and then with IV, the one takes from the five and makes it four..."

China waited in that split second for America to find his mistake.

"Oh, no you're right, sorry."

They continued to behave this way and argue as the last few numbers came to make little sense. They knew they'd messed up somewhere, and looked back at the other rows to recount. America sorted some at the end how he saw fit and got them more scrambled, then put them in other columns where they would make more sense.

Meanwhile, China found the missing link and took one of the files from an earlier time period and switched it out with one of the more recent years. As it turned out, they had made a mistake while translating, and something as simple as remembering how an X worked alongside an L had made all the difference in their arrangement. Now China could see they'd made an embarrassing decision, not that they really knew what they were doing anyway, and the rest of the files were a peace of cake to sort.

"No," debated America. "Put that one back, you'll get them mixed up."

China rearranged the two files he knew were wonky and let his friend spot the difference. As he did so, the two of them slowly recovered from the tense air about them, both having been attempting to prove something to the other.

From the computer, France tapped at China and read something he'd found aloud; "The lake water is not fit for swimming."

"Should we warn the others?" China creased his brow. Their unofficial leader went to check with the ranger about their work. "We sorted the files."

"Did you, already? I'll just go make certain, I'm sure you've done it correctly. I'm just going to double check." The man counted the files in order and confirmed their job well done.

"Thank you all so much. Here, as a reward, I've got a Junior Ranger Pin."

China practically snatched it from the Ranger, "Thank you, you shouldn't have."

"Anything else I can help you with?"

America waved as he led his group passed Switzerland and Liechtenstein and straight for the door, "No thanks, have a nice day!"

They hopped in the boat and complained for a few minutes,

"All that for a pin?" China huffed. "Then what is the water bottle for?"

France shook his head, "And we thought that was another puzzle. That was nothing but unnecessary work, not to mention irrelevant. We could've been helping the others at the Puzzle House."

"How much time did we waste," America started the engine and took off.

On their journey back to the lake house, they shouted at all the swimmers, warning them of the dangers in the water in three different tones:

"Get out of the water!" America shouted from the back.

"Stop swimming, idiots!" France beckoned from his side of the boat.

"Lake is not safe!" China called from his side.

 

 

After some winding, the path Germany and Prussia were on split in two again, but they kept right. Some additional winding occurred, and they found themselves at yet another split. Down the right path they went, until they hit a dead end. The two of them turned and followed along the path as they retraced their steps. They continued to find dead ends until they were back at the start of the maze.

Germany stated, "That was counterproductive."

"Well, next time we have to come here, we'll know to take a left. Keep right, he says."

They went along their way until they could choose to go onward or take a right. Prussia thought about recurring factors with the lake house and Ms Dittmar.

"We should go left!"

"Left? No, we'll keep right."

"Don't you see? Dittface is a woman of repetition! She puts dogs all over her house, she puts trees all over her garden, the entry to the maze was left, so now we go left!"

Germany creased his brow, "I think this is a coincidence."

"No, no, this is a test! A test inside a test, West! Let's go!"

Germany followed his brother anyway, and the trail took them back in direction of the house and straight to another dead end.

"Wow," said Prussia, "Way to be a sore loser. She planted the trees like this on purpose!"

"Let's go back, no harm done."

They returned to the split in the woods and took the other turn, instantly faced with another choice. Go onward or go left. Germany kept following the right wall of the trail, and led them to another dead end. Prussia grunted and ran back to the split, anxious to get to the end. They turned down the path untraveled, and by time they hit another left or right option, they ran into another group.

Italy and Japan were each holding a board, and in Italy's possession was the map to the maze.

"You idiot," Prussia pointed to the brat. "You stole the map!"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Italy handed it over, "You can have it back, if you want."

"No, we're too cool for maps! We've come this far without one, why have it at all! And where did you get those planks?"

"Oh, well, they were lying on the ground so we thought we'd take them along, so when we found you, we could give them to you! Because we knew you were working on the floor!"

Prussia grabbed both of the boards, "We don't need your help, stop helping us! Come on, West, we're going back!"

Germany asked, "Don't you think we should use the map?"

"No," Prussia said as he ran off. "It's only a couple lefts."

Germany went after his brother and the two of them found their way out to be easier than their venture in. Many of the groups were standing round the lake dripping wet, and looking as if they'd been startled. Possibly they'd been pranked and pushed in the water or something. Prussia fetched the plank from under the tarp and the two of them entered the house. Germany went straight to work mending the floorboards, putting the three new planks down and hammering them to the old floor. It looked awful.

"This is a mess," he groaned.

"Who cares, someone will come rip the planks up after our time is over anyway."

"I can't leave a project like this, it looks unfinished and rushed."

"That's because it was, now let's go!" Prussia reminded, "Basement!"

They hurried down the steps on the other side of the secret door and into the dark. Prussia felt round for a handle or something. After molesting the wall for a while without any luck, he shouted.

"Where is the door?"

Germany stepped down beside him and gave the wall his attention as well. They branched out and started feeling all three walls at the end of the staircase, testing all possibilities. Prussia found the door to the left at last, and they were welcomed into the basement.

Germany mentioned from behind, "Maybe we should find a torch now."

"Yeah, no kidding." Prussia closed the door as they backed out. "I found one in the cabinet with the map, unless someone stole that too."

They followed the stairs back up where he retrieved the torch and flicked it on to make sure it worked. He made a sound of approval and went over to Germany, who was pouting about his work with the floorboards.

"Forget it, West, let's beat the puzzle!"

The two of them went down the stairs again and into the new room. It was smaller than the upstairs, with a furnace on the left wall. Also in the left wall was a small compartment, an indent that implied that portion could be opened. Along the back wall were two large shelves, between which was a double door made of the rock wall, as if you could only open it from the other side. There was a metal door to the right, probably leading outside where the tarp was. On the ceiling was a light bulb, so there must've been a switch somewhere. They searched for one, and found it behind them just a bit over from where they'd come in. With the light on, Prussia turned the torch off and went for the compartment.

He tried to stick his fingertips in the indent to open it outward. Without luck, he pushed on it to see whether it was spring activated. Germany came over to have a look as his brother struggled with it.

"How do you open this?" Prussia then realised the compartment was separated by a thin slab of rock tucked between the basement wall and whatever it was hiding. He pushed on the slab and moved his hands rightward until it began to slide with his movement.

Behind the door was an old paper with lock combinations jotted on it, many of them crossed out. Prussia handed it to Germany and uncovered a small safe.

Germany looked the paper over, "Do one of these unlock it?"

"That would be too easy." Prussia inspected the dial lock, finding a small opening beside it for some sort of key. "I think we need to find another key, one that is very narrow, like a stick or a needle."

"If it's another keyhole, we'll need to find the actual key."

Thumping down the stairs neared another group of two; Netherlands and Belgium, who looked pleasantly surprised to find the room was already lit. Prussia wasted no time hiding the safe again, although the indent in the wall was rather obvious itself. Germany greeted the two and they responded as if the room was lacking oxygen.

"Have you found a puzzle?" Germany asked.

Netherlands went straight for the built-in double doors, instantly intrigued. Meanwhile, his partner shook her head as she gave an easy smile, despite how they'd recently greeted the Germans.

"We've found a safe," said Germany. "But there is no key. Have you seen one?"

"No," stressed Belgium as she eyed the shelves. "We'll let you know if we find something."

"It should be very narrow, like a pin."

"We'll keep our eyes open," she smiled.

Germany searched the room for something as Netherlands tried to pull the doors apart. Prussia watched them, acting as if nothing was hidden behind the loose slab in the wall. His younger brother couldn't find anything and gestured for them to take leave. He followed Germany out the metal door across the way.

There was enough light peeking through the slit of the cellar door to fill the next stairway. The two of them climbed the rock steps in single file and pushed the wooden exit open. Blue was gleaming before them as they were met by the tarp, and round it was Finland's group again; who jumped at the sudden departure from the cellar, and became tense after finding who'd departed from it.

"Hello again," said Finland.

"Hi," Prussia barked as he followed Germany to the front of the house.

The boat was back at the dock. America's group must've returned it.

Germany headed towards it, "What does the boat do?"

"It probably keeps you out of the water," teased Prussia.

They walked along the dock until another lake house was seen a ways off. Could that house have something to do with this one, or was this just Ms Dittmar's holiday spot?

"I'm going to call the administrator about that other lake house."

"You mean Dittface?"

"Stop calling her that."

 

Germany picked up the phone and dialled her number. As it rang, his brother went through the house to look for something long and narrow. He could hear people snoring upstairs, which reminded him to check the time. The Day groups would need to be rounded up at sunset.

"This is the Administrator's office."

"Hello, Ms Dittmar, I have a question concerning the second house on the lake. Is that an extension of the puzzle house?"

"Oh no, Dear, that's the Park Ranger. Though, I cannot guarantee he won't have anything to do with the puzzles."

Germany applauded her subtleness. "Thank you for your help, goodbye."

The phone was put down and he and his brother went out to the boat again. He told Prussia about the Park Ranger and how he may be able to offer a bit of assistance. They sat on opposite sides of the boat and quickly discovered it was motor activated. Prussia hollered a laugh in all his excitement as it occurred to him he'd taken the seat in front of the engine.

"West, hang on! We're going to meet the Park Ranger!"

"Don't wreck the boat."

Prussia pulled the handle and nothing happened. He pulled it again. He stood up and pulled again. He pulled again after that.

"What did those idiots do," he asked as he took his seat again. He pushed in the choke and tried pulling on the handle again to get it running.

"Is the throttle in the proper position?"

Prussia checked and confirmed, "It's in starting."

"Is the engine cold?"

Prussia put a hand to it. "It is cold, they didn't even start it."

"Try pulling the choke."

Prussia did as he was told, and pulled the handle to start the engine. He stood in the middle of the boat and yanked the handle in and out quite a few times before the motor warmed up.

"Yes," he purred as he took his seat. "To the park ranger!"

The boat jolted onward as the two flew to the back, leaving them floating about for a moment as they regained composure.

Germany climbed to his seat at the front, rubbing his head after the collision with Prussia's knee.

His brother laughed as he heaved himself forward to a seated position, having been nearly tossed off the end of the boat. Laughing his face another colour, he managed to say, "Sorry, West! I'm not trying to kill you, I swear!"

Germany began to laugh himself, "Are you all right?"

"My knee really hurts," he mocked. "Thanks a lot. Anyway, to the park ranger!"

Prussia went easier on the engine this time, and they sped along the water, which appeared to be unclean. Much of it was green and other spots were multi-coloured, as if there was some sort of contamination. That was some prank earlier, pushing everyone in polluted water like that.

The boat was parked parallel to the dock at the ranger's as it was at Ms Dittmar's, and Prussia turned the engine off. He climbed out with his brother and the two of them climbed the rocky path up to the second lake house.

Inside, Switzerland and Liechtenstein were standing about drinking cups of water as if they were being paid to.

"Welcome," called the ranger, "To the Wilderness Centre."

"Hi," Prussia barked again, and Germany and he went round the place looking for something key-shaped.

While they were doing that, Switzerland pulled his other group member outside.

The park ranger asked from behind the desk, "Can I help you find something?"

"Um yes," said Germany. "Is there a puzzle here?"

"Well, I don't know about puzzle, but if you'd like to help out, I've been meaning to take some pictures of birds for my website. I've got a camera here, if you'd be so kind."

Prussia came forward, "Do we get the next bit to the puzzle if we finish?"

"Oh, this is actually irrelevant to the Puzzle House, sorry. I get that all the time, people assume the centre is with the Puzzle House."

"Perfect!" Prussia ran up to the desk, "We'll take the job, guy!"

Germany came up as well, "What are you doing?"

"This will keep people away from what we're doing, it's genius!"

The ranger handed over a crappy camera, and thanked them for doing this. He also gave Prussia a tape player and told him the recordings were of birdcalls they should listen out for.

"There should be six slots on the camera, one for each bird."

Prussia's grin shrunk, "How difficult are these birds to find?"

"Some of them will be more difficult to snapshot, that much I do know."

"Great!" He ran out the door, "Let's go, West!"

They scampered down to the dock only to find their motorboat had gone missing. Prussia stopped himself from continuing off the platform, and ran backwards, quite distraught with the sight. Germany followed him back inside.

Prussia asked, "What happened to our boat?"

The ranger looked out the window beside him and shrugged.

He whipped round to a giant cardboard cut-out of a skunk in ranger's clothes, probably the mascot, or some weird animal version of the ranger himself. Prussia hated it in an instant and pointed to its eye.

"You saw the whole thing..."

His brother inputted, "I think Switzerland and Liechtenstein took it."

"Of course they did," Prussia left and returned to the dock at the edge of the rocky hillside.

"We're going to have to head back on foot."

They ran their eyes along the edge of the lake, tracing the long hike they'd need to make to return to the house. With the day coming to an end, it wouldn't be much longer before the Day and Night groups needed to switch off. They would have to meet everyone at the specified area to make certain all Day groups were accounted for. Germany and Prussia took off jogging through the grasses and brush, making their way round the lake as the sun came closer to disappearing. They used the torch to light their way in places the moon couldn't reach.

At the Puzzle House, the rest of the teams had already regrouped, and were waiting for them it seemed. Denmark and his overly crowded group hadn't returned yet, but someone had spotted a light coming from the forest on the other end of the property, opposite from the maze, and figured either Germany or Denmark had their group nestled there. Then, as Germany arrived, they assumed it must've been Denmark.

America ran over to the light as Germany gave the rest of them the next orders with Italy. He walked round the side of the house and up a path of flattened weeds to a large tree with a built-in ladder. From the bottom, he could see up into the fort someone had made, probably Ms Dittmar's husband. There was probably a puzzle up there they'd been working hard at all day.

He climbed the ladder to the fort planks and popped his head passed the doorway, instantly greeted by the Nordic countries.

"Hey," Norway ridiculed from behind. "Get your face out of here."

"Hello," said Finland from beside Norway.

In front of him was Sweden, who glared down at his intruding head.

"No room," yelled Denmark. "What, do you want us all to fall?"

"Yikes," joked America. "I just came to remind you that it's time to regroup!"

Finland made an uneasy noise and looked at his fellow teammates.

"We're not coming down." Denmark said with his arms crossed. "We're just here for the fort. We won't trouble anybody."

"Those are the rules, you don't want to be rude to the person who invited you, right?"

Denmark pushed the intruder back down the ladder by resting the heel of his boot on the man's head, and slowly increased the pressure he forced down upon it. As the others made troubled remarks about the message, Denmark bid farewell to the burden, "Goodbye then."

America held a blank smile and continued down the remainder of the ladder by himself. He passed the troubling news to Italy who didn't mind.

They all went inside to start cooking dinner, living off what they'd brought seeing as there were no shops or restaurants nearby. Everything they'd found and used was brought back to the cabin and stored in the icebox as planned. Then, while everyone was distracted with their food, Prussia slipped the shed keys, the map, and the notes about the safe in his pocket.

After that, the Day crowd went upstairs to switch off, and the Night crowd came to life to begin their share of the event.


	3. Chapter 3

"Yeah, man!" Sealand threw the top off the icebox and feasted upon what treasures they'd been left: Tape player, cheap camera, torch, hammer and nails, sand paper, a Junior Ranger pin, a water bottle, and a snazzy screwdriver.

His partner, England, took the torch from the box, the first thing they'd need.

"Look at all this stuff," Sealand poked around the items. "What puzzle do we want to solve first?"

"None of these things look like puzzles." He picked up the tape player to test his theory. "Why would this be of any use?"

He pressed play and the two of them listened in. An older man listed off names of random birds found in the area, and after each bird came a recorded call from that species.

Sealand hopped up and down. "Do we need to know what birds sound like for a puzzle?"

"Hey," Romano shouted from behind them, arms crossed. The two at the icebox moved aside for the rest of the Night crowd to take a peek.

Hungary asked for her group, "Could we get something to start working on? It doesn't have to be anything drastic, maybe just a side job?"

Romano handed her the pin from over his shoulder.

"Why," she took it in bewilderment, "Thank you."

"What does this do for anyone?" Austria looked at it as well. "We've been given a false clue. How dare all of you."

"Pipe down," Romano grabbed the camera and took off for the next room. "You told me to give you something and I did, I listened to what I was told to do! What more do you want from me?"

Spain looked the box over and thought he'd like the screwdriver, and then followed Romano to the fireplace.

Lithuania stood at the back with Poland Latvia and Estonia. Latvia and Estonia had decided they'd rather be with the Night groups, and so ditched Finland to rest until nightfall, which messed with their sleep pattern quite a bit. In fact, none of them could get a decent shuteye, especially with the smells of food from downstairs. After waking up, the Night groups had a bit of breakfast from their own rations; as it happened, the Morning groups only made enough for themselves.

The four of them waited their turn to be given something to use.

"Well you lot," said England looking over the remaining supplies. "You've got a hammer and nails, a water bottle, and sandpaper to work with."

"That's fine," Lithuania waved, "We'll take what's left after Hungary chooses something more useful."

Sealand ran round the crowd to meet up with his buddy on the other side. Hungary came forward to collect something else, sending the pin down to the bottom of the box. With what was left, it became difficult to claim an item that would be useful without leaving the other teams with nothing.

"Has anything been solved thus far?" She asked, quite alarmed with what little they'd been given by the Morning groups.

Lithuania inputted, "It looks like someone might've fixed the floorboards over there by the stairs, maybe they used the hammer and nails for that."

She went on, "Are these things for nothing now?"

Austria couldn't remove his eye from the mess now that it had been mentioned. "I suppose we could undertake a better act of craftsmanship."

England nodded, "That's an idea."

"Fix what has already been done?" Hungary thought aloud, "We may as well have accepted the pin we'd been given."

"Yeah," screamed Romano from a ways off, "You see?"

"Okay," Poland came up and reached in. "Is there anything somewhat better than everything else? Let's see, if all the items can only be used once, we don't want the hammer and nails." He took out the sandpaper and held it up to his eye. "This has already been used as well. Looks like we get the pin."

"Are you serious," Hungary looked to Austria and then the rest of them, "We can only use items once during the whole game?"

England left for the side door, "Looks like we'd better be off."

Sealand followed behind, "We're going to solve a bird puzzle!"

With the shut of the door, Hungary looked to Austria, who looked back at her. Apparently, they conversed through telepathy, because shortly after, they brought the nails and hammer to the floorboards.

Lithuania took out the sandpaper and water bottle. "How do we use these things?"

Estonia suggested, "This can't be all of it. I'll bet there are other things lying about that the others didn't want to fetch after dinner. That, or there are more puzzles that have been untouched. By chance we could run into one of those."

Lithuania nodded, "Good, yes. Let's try to- Oh no! England has the torch, we'll need to stay inside."

"Oh, dude," Poland tapped his friend's shoulder as if he felt sorry for him, "The moon will be our guide, all right?"

"Will that be enough?"

Latvia glanced behind the curtains and saw out. "Looks like it."

"Okay," Estonia led them outside, "We're going to solve a puzzle too."

Spain called, "Have fun, friends!"

Romano shouted as the door was closing, "Piss off!"

Spain squinted, "What's with you today?"

 

England and Sealand were kneeling around the first corner of the maze, shining the torch on the tape player and listening to the various birdcalls over.

England grunted, "What is this for? Why did we grab this one?"

"Maybe we need to find these birds by listening to their call in the woods!"

"Well, we're not going to find them at night, are we? We've been tricked, the puzzles are for during the day!"

Sealand argued, "If that were so, the Puzzle House wouldn't have come with a torch, would it?"

"Anyone could've put that in there! Come on, let's go ask for a trade."

England's group went down the short hill to the cabin where they met up with Lithuania's crowd.

"Hey there," Sealand greeted, trying to sound like a grown country.

"Can we trade our tape record for one of your items? Actually, what have you got?"

Lithuania showed them what he was holding, "We have a water bottle, a piece of sandpaper, and Poland has a pin."

"Never mind," said England walking passed them, "We'll go check with Spain."

Sealand smiled, "I'll take your pin, man!"

"Um," Poland held it up so the country could see it but kept it out of his reach, "No way! This is our supercool pin!"

"Fine," Sealand ran inside after England.

Estonia walked ahead for a bit until their group could huddle again without being so cramped, the four of them standing about the moonlit grass.

"Where should we search?"

Lithuania glanced round, "Why don't we walk to the waterfront? I think I can still see the boat that was here earlier."

"A boat," said Estonia, "Good. We can travel the outskirts of the land for more ground to cover."

They headed in that direction until they were stepping on the short dock. The boat had a motor attached to it, to their surprise, and it looked just big enough for them all to sit comfortably. Latvia hopped in and sat away from the mechanism.

"Does anyone have a preference?" Lithuania asked as he landed a shoe down at the bottom of the boat.

Poland got in and sat by the motor, "I don't think I like this thing, but I want to know where I'm going, so yeah."

Estonia planted himself beside Latvia, staring across at Lithuania who sat on the other side of the motor. Lithuania started the thing and they drifted off to the middle of the lake. Large trees and overgrowth blocked most of the shore, and short isles of brush and debris cut them off from a clear view across the lake. They spent time navigating round things until they were closer to the centre of the water, somewhere they could see the shore from all around, though it seemed impossible, especially as the moon was their only source of vision.

Poland felt himself turning aimlessly until he caught his eye on something shiny, at which time he pointed onward and announced, "What's that?"

Lithuania was trying to make out what it was as well as Estonia and Latvia turned on their bench to check it out.

Calming the motor Lithuania said, "It looks like a metal roofed house."

"Is it, like, part of our game and stuff?"

"We could move closer and look for a sign or something."

They made their way over to the shore and cut the motor before arriving at the dock, using the current to glide the rest of the way in. After hitting the new dock, Latvia hopped out and climbed the hill for some kind of description regarding the structure.

He saw a sign posted on the outer wall and shouted down the hill, "It's the Forestry Centre!"

"Cool," Poland called back, "Is it open?"

Latvia tried the door, without luck he replied, "Sorry, no!"

He returned to the boat and they made their way back to, what they considered to be, the middle of the lake. Their heads all turned in different directions, looking for some kind of land marker where they could dismount, as well as anything looking remotely like a clearing where clues may be hidden.

Poland was at the right place at the right time, "What's that?"

The rest of them copied the country's gaze to find another building, located on the other side of the Puzzle House up another small hill. They motored that way and neared the dock using the same technique as last time. Latvia hopped his lightweight build straight out and ran up to the next unknown structure.

As he closed in on it, he found it was dark inside passed the large windows. He informed the others, "It's a small market, and it also appears closed!"

Lithuania frowned, "This isn't going too well for us, is it?"

           

Romano screamed as he pulled the camera away from Sealand. "We said no, you stupid jerks!"

Hungary turned from her kneeled posture on the floor, trying to mend the boards with Austria. "Would you please quit your fighting over there?"

England was playing the tape, "Who wants the pretty birdies?"

"Enough," Spain grabbed the player and turned it off, right before he snatched the camera from the younger countries. "You two go work on what you've been given, and we'll work on what we've been given! Fair is fair!"

Sealand jumped for the camera, "All we've got is a bird calling machine! That's not a puzzle!"

Spain argued back, "Well, I don't see how a camera is any more descriptive, so you just get away from it!"

England stormed over to the icebox and tossed the tape record in. " _Find the birds_ , not in the dark you don't! And what's all this about a secret door behind the missing floor boards? Nothing you can't reach without a hammer!" He made an effort to climb over Austria and Hungary.

"Stop that," Austria held the country away from himself.

"Sealand, let's go venture the downstairs!"

"Yeah," the youngster ran after his group, joining him in the dark of the passage as England flicked the torch on.

Hungary grunted as she soothed her hair, "Goodness, you two."

England took them down to a cellar door, which was opened to reveal a lit room, standing in the middle of which was Netherlands and Belgium. England flicked the torch off again and looked about.

Sealand announced, "What's your item? What have you got to work with?"

Belgium smiled, "Oh, we don't have any items. You see, we're just trying to open this puzzle door."

"Another door, cool! Hurry, please!"

England saw a peculiar square indent off to the side and went to check on it. He pawed at the inner slab of wall to see if it would move along a socket or something, much like a window. Bit by bit, the free piece of wall slid out of the way until a small safe was exposed. What a lucky bastard; his first puzzle managed.

Sealand was intrigued in an instant, and rushed over to see what they'd happened upon. The first thing they noticed was the inconveniently placed lock, though they weren't expecting it to have been conveniently opened either.

England fingered the small hole. "What do you suppose fits here?"

"An extremely small key! Maybe we can use someone's hair clip!"

"Cheat the system?" England thought for a moment, "Alright, let's have at it."

Sealand spun round, "Belgium?"

The country turned from her puzzle, "Yes, little one?"

"Have you got a hair clip on you?"

"Are you expecting all feminine individuals to carry hair utensils?"

Netherlands situated a cold eye of judgement on Sealand.

"Eh, never mind!" He spun right back round.

England tapped the youngster's head. "You know what, I'll bet the pin goes in there."

Sealand reached up to pat England's head but found it too far. Instead he patted the country's bum. "You know, I think it will! Let's go steal it from Poland!"

England swatted the hand away from him, having had quite enough of that. He then led his group out the back door. The two of them scurried round to the side of the cabin where they'd last seen Lithuania's crowd, though they weren't there.

"Bollocks," Sealand declared as if he were proud to.

"Good God," England choked. "That was the bluntest thing I've heard from you all night. Where have you heard of such language?"

"What, can't handle a little sailor talk?"

"You're not a boat you're an island made of steel!"

"There's still water out there!"

"Go inside and spit," England pointed to the house. "Come back when you're ready to behave properly in the presence of a gentleman."

"You're no gentleman, you just told me to go spit! That's more sailor stuff, sounds like!"

England bent down and nearly smashed their heads together. "You go inside and take care of that mouth! Listen to your superiors!"

Sealand went ahead and got up on his tiptoes to finish the job for him. "This is my team, so you listen to me!"

Seeing as the micronation was so inclined to press foreheads, England ground down on his skull, bending his knees when necessary. "You're not even considered a country! I'm surprised Italy invited you at all!"

"I'll be the biggest best-est country ever, and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Here's your spit, sir!" He gathered some saliva in his mouth just as England pulled away to save himself, but Sealand was quick to spit across the gap and nail the larger country's gritted mouth.

England slobbered on the grass as he leaned over, doing all he could not to puke. "You git!"

"Clean yourself up," Sealand headed for the maze. "I'm taking us into the forest to continue our search for Lithuania's group!"

He spit the rest of the micronation's rubbish and called after him, "Without a torch? Well after you, Mr _I'm so brilliant_!"

Sealand turned on his heel. "You're not coming with me?"

"God's sake, no; you're a little prick! And besides, they're probably the ones out there in that boat." England gestured to the lake.

The smaller country came away from the maze to join his group again, suddenly aware of the moving figure out on the water. He looked up at England for a plan of attack, then gained enough confidence to begin heading out there himself. At the edge of the dock, England flicked their torch on and off to signal the wanderers back home. After some time of waiting for the motor's faint echo to grow loud enough that they could have a conversation, England told the others:

"We're borrowing your pin."

"No," Poland whined and took control of the steering handle to move away from the shore.

"Get your ass back here, we're perfectly willing to trade!"

"Hey," Sealand argued, "You've just said _ass_! That's just as much of a dirty word as bollocks!"

"Oh, everyone's got an ass!"

Estonia shouted over the motor. "Why do you want it so badly?"

Lithuania tried to ask questions as well, "Do you know what it's used for?"

"Well, if we were to say _yes_ ," England said, "Would you hand it over, or keep it out of spite?"

Lithuania called, "Can't we solve the puzzle with you? Wasn't this holiday meant for being one big family?"

England asked Sealand, only partially expecting an answer. "Why are we in teams again?"

"To be the best!" The micronation then admitted, "I don't know, wasn't it Germany's idea? To be in Morning and Night groups?"

England muttered under his breath, "If that's the case, I see no point in needing to put up with you..."

Lithuania called again, "Can we?"

"Fine!" England loudly replied.

"No," Poland whined and whispered to his boat company for quite some time after that. Poland and Lithuania kept glancing over to the dock time and again, as Latvia shrugged and looked about at all of them maybe fifteen times each. Estonia hunched his back after a while, and pointed to something across the lake. Poland then turned to the cabin with a worried expression on his face.

Sealand put his hands on his hips in boredom. "What are they doing? I thought we said we were gonna trade. What was it we were going to trade?"

"I thought we'd give them the tape player I'd put away, but maybe Spain and Romano have it now." England thought over the situation inside the cabin: Austria and Hungary hard at work on the floor, and Spain's group complaining about fair being fair. He crossed his arms and huffed, "I doubt anyone has it, actually. We're probably safe in assuming it's still ours."

"Yeah," Sealand agreed. "Have them get nowhere with the birds while we uncover the secrets of the basement."

"Even if we do get their pin we still don't know the combination for the lock. Could it be hidden somewhere in the house? Maybe one of the other 'puzzles' solves this bit?"

"Yeah," Sealand walked up the dock, "It doesn't matter who has the key; it's the combination we want! Let's find that first and worry about getting the pin later."

England stood firm. "Well, if they don't give us the pin now, they're not likely to give it to us later. We'd better stick about until they give us an answer."

"What if they say _no_?"

"They won't say no...." England took out a light spell book and turned to the first page of command charms. He chanted one of the verses as he held a hand out across the water, concentrating his energy in direction of the boat. Sealand kept quiet behind him. They waited in the humid air as crickets chirped round them.

"Um," Lithuania spoke up after some time. "We'll give you the pin if you give us what you find with it, so we can be useful to the puzzles as well!"

"What?" Sealand screamed, and tugged England's shirt. "Try again!"

England called out, "Why don't you use the pin and we'll keep what you find?"

Estonia spoke up, "Because it's our item and not yours! I thought you were doing something about a bird puzzle?"

"We were!" Sealand shouted, "But there aren't any birds at night!"

"What was your first clue?"

England's group steamed in frustration.

"Well," Lithuania thought aloud, "We'd like to help, but if we all use the pin together it'll make us one big group, and I don't think that was the initial plan."

England looked for a charm to take control of Poland's body, hoping he could force the country to swim over and simply hand them the pin.

"Never mind," Sealand shouted, "We don't want your dumb pin anymore!"

England put the book away and joined his teammate in leaving. "Yeah, bloody well right!"

The two went through the cellar door in the back to re-enter the basement, Netherlands and Belgium were there still trying to get the door open. England had his team regroup at the safe to look for a clue of some sort.

"Maybe it doesn't open. Maybe it was the administrator's savings and they never blocked it up properly before allowing a bunch of idiots on the property."

Sealand argued, "Then why would they leave a pin? What else do you use a pin for?"

"Maybe one of us dropped it and another one of us thought it was part of the Puzzle House."

"That's no fair. All we got was a stupid tape-" Sealand yawned.

"Stop it-" England was forced to yawn as well. "We can't sleep yet, we haven't completely solved our puzzle. That would be the same as joining a battle without planning on shooting anyone."

Sealand whispered, "But Netherlands and Belgium haven't solved their puzzle either, and I don't think they will at this rate..."

England looked over his shoulder at the other group. Belgium was trying to fit her fingers between the doors to pull it open while Netherlands fiddled with things on the shelves to find a secret lever, or something. He looked at Sealand once again and whispered as well.

"So we agree joining another group is rubbish."

Sealand nodded, "Of course!"

"Then I don't think we're progressing any further like this. We should switch teams and wake up when the birds do."

"Good idea. Let's hurry before its sunrise!" Sealand ran out the cellar and up the steps with his group chasing behind.

Austria saw them coming out as the door opened in front of him and grunted in displeasure. They climbed over his and Hungary's work and whipped round the stairs to climb those steps as well, meanwhile Spain asked from the couch:

"Where do you think you're going? You're supposed to use what you've been given! What is the meaning of cheating like this?"

Sealand laughed under his breath as he hurried round the corner. From a few steps down, England stopped to explain:

"Cheating? We're trying to be helpful! Birds don't come out at night, so we're sleeping until they do!"

Hungary looked up at him, "You're changing sides? Who will take your place?"

"I don't care, mind your own business! If you don't mind, I've got to sleep now!"

Austria asked the room as England went through the bedroom door, "Are we allowed to simply change teams like that? I thought each one had to be balanced."

"Not that I care or anything." Hungary continued hammering nails. "Even if we were part of the Day team we'd still be mending the floor."

"Whoever did this made little effort to fix it. If anything, this new floor helps remind us we're indeed above the cellar, but little else. If I were to have stepped on it, I might've fallen through."

"I doubt this was a puzzle. Someone must've broken the floor by accident. But I agree, the craftsmanship before was a terrible job."

By now the hole was nearly covered, though they would still need some additional planks. Rather than spacing them along the gap as someone had, Austria and Hungary had situated the planks to rest straight beside one another so a passerby couldn't see through the floor, and they'd placed two nails at the top and bottom of each plank respectively so a passerby couldn't simply rip it from the floor if they so chose. It was much better, but still incomplete.

"I suppose," began Austria as he turned in his kneeled position, "Our task is to search for more wood."

"Yes," his partner answered. "Seeing as there is nothing else for us to do. Maybe we could regroup as Night Team and see what all we've managed?"

"We can't let them see this disaster." He gave it another thought, "Oh, perhaps its not so bad. You're right, gather everyone up and meet here."

Hungary got up and walked over to the couch where the next group was.

"We're meeting here to talk over what we've completed as Night Team. Please do not move from this spot."

Romano nodded gladly, and she left for the outdoors.

Spain regarded their items. "A screwdriver and empty camera. We have nothing to show for our efforts! What am I talking about? We haven't done anything!"

Romano pouted from beside him. "This game is stupid."

"Don't be rude to your brother. I'm sure he's at least having a wonderful time with his friends, as should we. It's not about winning a silly game."

"I think it is. Why else would he have picked a Puzzle House to visit on holiday?"

Spain dropped his arms and they smacked his legs, still holding the worthless items they'd chosen. He slumped off the couch until his chin was pushing on his collar, his clothes rolling up as the couch tried to hang on to him as if he were falling off the ends of the Earth. Romano lightly smacked his exposed stomach.

"Ouch...!"

"Oh, that didn't hurt, you jerk!"

"You're right, I was surprised is all."

"Then you should've screamed _whoa_!"

"Are you saying I screamed just then?" He teased, "That was barely a mutter."

"No, you definitely screamed! How would you know? You're ears are practically buried in your shirt!"

Austria walked to the kitchen table for a seat, unwilling to join them in the sitting room. "Can't you keep him from behaving like that?"

Romano spat, "Shut up! Don't talk to him like he's your doll!"

"I wish you were a doll." Austria said, "Voiceless and obedient."

Spain sat up and pulled down on his shirt. "Please, let's not fight. We're on the same team. If at all, we should be upset with the Day Team. Wait, we should not be upset at all! This is a fun time to be together!"

Austria sat in one of the chairs, "Is it?"

 

 


End file.
